BDD Scenarios

Learn to write clear, maintainable BDD scenarios that effectively capture business requirements and drive implementation.

Writing Good Scenarios

A good scenario should be:

• Specific: Test one behavior

• Declarative: Describe what, not how

• Business-focused: Use domain language

• Independent: No dependencies on other scenarios

Good scenario - specific and declarative

Scenario: Customer receives loyalty discount Given a customer with Gold membership status And a cart total of $100 When the customer proceeds to checkout Then a 10% loyalty discount should be applied And the final total should be $90

Bad scenario - too implementation-focused

Scenario: Apply discount Given I click the membership dropdown And I select "Gold" from the list When I click the checkout button Then the JavaScript calculates 10% off

Acceptance Criteria Format

Feature: Order Refunds

Rule-based acceptance criteria

Rule: Full refunds are available within 30 days

Scenario: Refund requested within return window
  Given an order placed 15 days ago
  When the customer requests a refund
  Then a full refund should be processed

Scenario: Refund requested after return window
  Given an order placed 45 days ago
  When the customer requests a refund
  Then the refund should be denied
  And the customer should see "Return window expired"

Edge Case Scenarios

Feature: User Registration

Scenario: Successful registration Given I am on the registration page When I submit valid registration details Then my account should be created

Edge cases

Scenario: Registration with existing email Given a user exists with email "existing@example.com" When I try to register with email "existing@example.com" Then I should see "Email already registered"

Scenario: Registration with invalid email format When I try to register with email "not-an-email" Then I should see "Please enter a valid email"

Scenario: Registration with empty required fields When I submit the registration form with empty fields Then I should see validation errors for required fields

Scenario Tags and Organization

@authentication @critical Feature: User Login

@smoke Scenario: Basic login flow # ...

@security Scenario: Account lockout after failed attempts # ...

@wip Scenario: Two-factor authentication # Work in progress

When to Use This Skill

Use bdd-scenarios when you need to:

• Define acceptance criteria for user stories

• Document expected system behavior

• Create comprehensive test coverage

• Identify edge cases early in development

• Communicate requirements clearly

Best Practices

• Start with the happy path scenario

• Add edge cases systematically

• Use tags for organization and filtering

• Keep scenarios at 3-7 steps

• Write scenarios before implementation

• Review scenarios with stakeholders

Common Pitfalls

• Writing scenarios after implementation

• Including too many steps per scenario

• Using vague or ambiguous language

• Forgetting negative test cases

• Not organizing with tags effectively